


The Limestone Locust

by lettadaloki



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Bogarting it, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Maltese Falcon Feel, Not really important since he dies anyway, Possibly Cuckold, Saw a scene and couldn't help but reinact it with Nick, Suggestive Themes, slight romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 18:16:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lettadaloki/pseuds/lettadaloki
Summary: Nick's partner has been murdered in the night, and everyone wants to know who did it!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I've changed it up a bit from the canon of what happened to Marty, and maybe tweaked a little bit on Nick's character to resemble more of Sam Spade. The title is just a play on words of the Gilded Grasshopper and the Maltese Falcon.

**March 30th, 2280**

**Diamond City**

* * *

 

The night had been spent for Nick and Ellie making a roundabout trip to Goodneighbor and back home again in search of a lead on another case, and the two were exhausted as Nick pressed the buzzer to the gates of Diamond City. "Danny, it's Nick and Ellie." Silence. This was a bit out of the ordinary, considering how friendly Danny typically was to him, of all of Diamond City's security, but the gates shuddered and lifted, and there stood all of Diamond City Security, the Mayor, and their mother standing there waiting.

With his trenchcoat slung over his shoulder, Nick raised a pencilled eyebrow in confusion. "Evening, Tom, Danny, McDonough..And company.. It's a little late in the winter to go caroling, isn't it?"

Ellie snorted, kicking some of the glowing snow behind her; a perk of the nuclear winter they had all become so accustomed to over the past two centuries. McDonough's face hardened, as did Tom's. Danny was the first one to say anything to them. "Marty has been shot, Nick."

That woke both of them right up, Nick's head rising straight, glowing eyes full of sudden surprise. "Did anyone tell his wife?" McDonough shook his head, and Nick's gaze immediately shot to Ellie, who nodded and ran past the guards, up into the entrance, while Tom asked. "What kind of gun do you carry, Nick?" Eyes hardened on him, like he wasn't some good-doer detective with the pink heart signs.

Nick's eyes hardened too. "Pipe pistol. They run cheap, but we've got some .45s and 10mms down at the office."

"Do you have one of those on you?"

"No, but we can go down to the agency, and you can turn the place upside down if you've got the warrant." Warrants didn't matter in a world with no real government. Nick knew that it also didn't matter, since he didn't technically have certain unalienable rights, being a synth. "I don't like this, what are you snooping around me for? You know I wasn't here."

McDonough snapped. "And how do we know that you didn't send an Institute informant?" A cruel accusation that would one day be a hard irony for the middle-aged mayor.

Tom crossed his arms as he looked at Nick pointedly. "Why did you send Marty to tail Thursby?"

Nick's eyes slowly rolled, holding his hands up defensively. "A client came in worried she was gonna be stalked to the dugout, but Ellie and I already had a case we were close to wrapping up. Marty said he'd take it, no sweat. You boys saw me and Ellie coming up through the snow, why are you making such a big fuss when we all know I have at least three eye witnesses to prove that I was in Goodneighbor all night. Now what the hell happened?" He nearly growled.

The group looked at each other, before McDonough returned to his elevator for some business, and Danny turned back to Nick. Nick's hands went to the holster on his belt, just resting his thumbs there, both metal and plastic. "Marty die?"

"You bet." Danny replied, softer this time. "Shot four times in the back with a .44 or a .45 across the walkway from the Dugout Inn. No eyewitnesses saw it."

An eyebrow raised as he glanced back to Danny. "I thought there were supposed to be guards on every base."

"That's what I thought too...Did you know Thursby, Nick?"

"Never met the guy in my life."

"You sure you didn't do it, Nick?" Tom accused, arms still defensively crossed. "Man that kills his partner? It wasn't like you two were best friends, or even good acquaintances."

"All right, that's fair enough.. If you can explain how I managed to take a missing child back to her parents in Goodneighbor while at the same time plot and execute the murder of Marty without having any eye witnesses."

There was a long silence amongst them, before Nick uttered sarcastically. "I didn't think so. Goodnight, boys." He walked forward, into the city just as the sun was rising over the horizon.

 

 


	2. The Wife of my Partner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marty's wife mourns to Nick, and dares to make yet another accusation. Ellie notices something odd.

Nick rounded the corner of Takahashi's, where the stench of slippery noodles still smelled fresh, and the glow of his detective signs still reminded him of home, and was surprised when he saw Ellie standing outside, smoking a cigarette. Ellie's hazel eyes glowered at Nick before she jutted with her chin. "She's in there."

Marty's wife was enamored with Nick, and it bothered Nick enough to have asked Ellie to help him keep an eye out for the crazed dame. His eyes rolled just at the idea of that woman in his office. "I told you to keep her away from me-" Ellie interrupted with a sharp tone, "But you didn't tell me how.. Don't be cranky with me Nick, I've had her here all morning."

Nick visibly loosened, frowning. No wonder Ellie was smoking at six-o-clock in the morning. "Sorry, doll, I didn't mean to-" Interrupted again as the door creaked, and he saw the woman standing there, in an old sequined dress with a black veil pulled over her face, eyes red from the tears she'd cried, over who, Nick had no clue.

"Hello, Iva." He gave a half-way bow, and nodded to Ellie that he'd be back in a moment, walking into the dimly litted agency.  She sniffled, "Oh Nick.."The moment the door closed, the woman's arms reached up and around Nick's neck, pressing a deep and passionate kiss to Nick's lips.

Holding in his disgust, he gently pulled back, and murmured gently. "Did Ellie help you take care of Marty's office?" The woman sniffled, mascara dripping down her cheeks. "I think so.." She wiped some from the top of her cheek with her glove before she stared hard into Nick's golden eyes, searching. "Nick... Did you kill him?"

It stunned him hard. Hard enough for him to pull her arms from him. "Who put that crazy idea into your head?" She sniffled, swallowing a sinus full of snot. "Be kind to me, Nick.."

He walked away from her, towards his own desk before he turned around and leaned against it, clapping his hands together with a grin he wasn't proud of. "Ha! 'You killed my husband, Nick.' 'Be kind to me.'" Iva just erupted into a wail, burying her nose into a dirty hold handkerchief that didn't match her veil. He sighed and pulled the fedora off of his head, and rubbed at the plastic cranium, tossing the hat aside before he straightened and placed his hands on the sides of her shoulders gently. "Don't, Iva, don't. You shouldn't have come here today. You ought to be home."

She raised her head, sniffling. "You'll come soon?"

He raised his head, to see Ellie standing in the door way before he replied lightly. "I'll be over as soon as I can." A lie. "Good bye, Iva." He lightly pushed the woman towards the door, Ellie stepping out of the way with a broad smirk and shutting it hard behind, while Nick took a slow glance over to Marty's emptied desk.

Ellie walked closer with a flirtatious sway of the hips, and the sass in her step that made Nick hire her in the first place. "Well.. How did you and the widow make out?" 

"She thinks I shot miles." 

Ellie's face scrunched up in confusion at that. "So you could marry her?" She asked, reaching over to snatch a pack of cigarettes for herself, lighting up.

Nick shrugged, carelessly. "Security thinks I had something to do with it. Do you think I did it?" 

Ellie shook her head, firmly. For a seventeen year old, Nick was always impressed with her as a secretary, as someone he could see becoming her own detective one day. "Are you gonna marry Iva?" And for a minute, Nick almost dropped his own cigarette.

"Don't be silly. I wish I'd never laid eyes on her." 

"Do you suppose she could have killed him, Nick?"

"You're an angel, Ellie. A rattlebrained angel." He teased. 

Her eyes narrowed playfully as she sat on the desk, stubbing the match into an ashtray as she tucked her chin. "Am I? Suppose I told you that Iva hadn't been home many minutes when I went to break the news at 5:20 this morning." 

He raised an eyebrow, while his other hand went with a screwdriver to toy at the screw in his claw of a hand. "Are you telling me?" 

Ellie smirked. "She kept me waiting at her door while she undressed. Her clothes were on a chair, where she obviously dumped them, hat and coat underneath. Her slip on top was still warm." She leaned forward, eyeing Nick like he'd missed a crucial clue, and she picked up on it. Smugness, Nick called it. "She wrinkled up the bed, but the wrinkles weren't mashed down." 

Nick grinned, and shook his head gently. "You're a detective, darling, but she didn't kill him." 

Her arms crossed defensively. "Does security really think you shot Marty?" Nick rolled his eyes, but she snapped at him again. "NIck. Look at me. You're too slick for your own damn good. Someday you're gonna find it out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might continue on this story if more people are interested. Please let me know :)


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